Music-leaf turner



(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 1.

G. BETTINI.

MUSIC LEAF TURNER.

No. 408,908. Patented Aug. 13, 1889.

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(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

G. BETTINI'.

MUSIC LEAF TURNER. No. 408,908. Patented Aug. 13, 1889.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OEEIcE.

GIANNI BETTINI, OF STAMFORD, CONNECTICUT.

MUSIC-LEAF TURNER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 408,908, dated August 13, 1889.

Applic i n fi ed September 5, 1888 Serial No. 284,592. (No model.)

T 0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GIANNI BETTINI, a resident of Stamford, in the county of Fairfield and State of Connecticut, have invented a new and Improved Music-Leaf Turner, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

The object of the invention is to provide for the automatic turning of the pages of music to be read at a piano or other instrument without obliging the performer to interrupt the piece in order to turn the said pages; and the further object of the invention is to provide an apparatus answering this purpose giving all the advantages of simplicity, exactitude, and convenience.

The invention consists in the construction and combination of the several parts, as will be hereinafter fully set forth, and pointed out in the claims.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, in which similar letters and figures of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the views.

Figure 1 is a front elevation of the apparatus detached; Fig. 2 is a plan view. Fig. 3 is a section on line 3 3 of Fig. 1. Fig. at is a section on line a 4 of Fig. 1. Fig. 5 is a side elevation of the apparatus detached from the instrument. Fig. 6 is a detail sectional view of one of the springcasings. Fig. 7 is a perspective view of one of the keys, illustrating the mode of attachment to the apparatus; and Fig. 8 is a side elevation of one of the musicleaf-gripping fingers.

In carrying out the invention the frame 10 of the apparatus is preferably rectangular in contour, constructed of wood, and consists of side pieces 11, the top bar 12, and the basebar 13, which latter bar is of a greater width than the other bars of the frame. In the center of the frame a perpendicular supportingbar 13 is located, which bar is adapted to retain in a fixed position a tube 14:, of copper or other metal, which tube extends from a point near the upper end of the base-bar of the frame upward beyond the upper bar, being held from lateral movement by a strap 15, passing over the tube and riveted or otherwise secured to the said top bar 12 of the frame.

Transversely of the frame 10 a horizontal rest-bar 16 is held to slide upon the said frame and likewise upon the tube 14. The rest-bar 16 is capable of being raised to any height and stopped at any point by means of a setscrew 17, passing through the center of the bar to an engagement with the surface of the tube 14. This rest-bar serves to support the divisions of the music, and is provided near each end with a pivoted stop 18 of spring metal, which stops turn upon their fulcrums, and the purpose of the said stops is to provide a ready means of retaining the divisions of the music in place, pressing them against the side bars 11 of the frame.

Owing to the adjust-ability of the supporting-bar 16, which admits by reason of the ability of the performer or adjuster of the music to raise or lower the rest-bar 16 at will, the apparatus may be used in connection with music of any height. hen in its lowermost position, it can be employed for ordinary sheetsfor instance, fourteen inches in height.

Thelower or base bar 13 of the frame, which has been described as being wider than the other bars, contains all the mechanism necessary in the manipulation of the apparatus. To that end a depression or recess 19 is produced longitudinally in the central portion of the base-bar, commencing to the right at a point 20 and increasing in depth until a point 21 is reached to the left of the center of the cross-bar, at which point 21 the recess terminates in a vertical wall.

Within the depression or recess 19, at a point corresponding to the end of the tube 14,

a guide-plate 22 is secured, constructed of copper or other equivalent metal, which plate is provided with five or more parallel slots and raised or rounded vertically, to admit, if desired, of the prolongation of the said tube 14, the object of the guide-plate being to form five longitudinal passages in correlation with the tube itself and at its right.

Five wires a, a, a a and a are held to revolve within the tube 14, the upper ends whereof are bent at right angles in the same direction to provide a series of integral horizontal arms 23, and the said. rods are likewise bent at the lower ends to form a series of graduated arms, also extending outward at a right angle to the body, thelower arms being bent in. the same direction as the upper arms.

The lower ends of the several rods contained in the tube 14: are so manipulated in construction. that the lower horizontal arms will not only be of different lengths, but whereby also the vertical section of one rod will be slightly longer than the other, to provide one lower horizontal arm for each of the divisions in the guide-plate 22, as best illustrated in Fig. 1.

It will be observed that each time one of the lower arms is moved the entire rod will also turn on itself in the tube, and the upper arms will assume the same position as the lower arms.

The lower arms of the several rods are pro vided each. with. a small ring 24-, to which ring one end of a strip of rubber, simple spring, or spring-wire 25 is attached, illustrated in lii .l. and 6, the opposite end of the said spring being ordinarily secured to the left wall of the depression or recesslfl. The elastic force of these springs will at all times, if nothing prevents, hold the arms of the rods contained in the tube l-t to the left of the center of the base of: the frame.

The preferred form of spring used in connection with the several arms a, a, (6 a, and a. illustrated in. Fig. (i, and consists, pref erabl y, of a small tube 26, attached in any approved manner to the base-bar of the frame, which tube contains a spiral spring 27, the inner end of which spring rests upon. the inner head of the tube, the said inner head bein g provided with an aperture 28 for the passage of the wire connectin the arms and springs. The outer end of the wire I), used in connection with the spring 7, secured to the eye 24: of the arms, from whence it is carried through the aperture 2r. in the tube 26 through a spring 27, and a disk is attached to the outer end of the wire 71, adapted to engage and. bear against the outer end of the spring, or, instead of a disk, the said wire may be bent upon itself to form a hook, as illus trated.

Thus when the arms a, a, a", and a" are carried from left to right the spring 27 is compressed, and if a stop is not provided to retain the said arms to the right of the center of the frame the tension. of the said spring will immediately draw the arms back to their normal. position at the left.

To the right of the guide-plate 22 a series of spring-actuated fingers 28 are hinged or pivoted to the base-bar of the frame, the said fingers being arranged diagonally of the base-bar to receive each, the extremity of the lower arm of one of the wire rods revolving in the tube ll when the said rods are carried to the right.

In attaching the fingers to the frame a reecss is preferably produced in the base-bar, as illustrated in. Fig. 7, and the inner ends of the fingers litted in said recess are retained in hinged connection with the base-bar by means of a wire 29, passed through apertures in the said base-bar and to the rear, and then again to the front and. through a transverse aperture formed in the inner end of the key.

The upper face of the key is formed to present an inelin ed plane 30, this inclined plane being provided to permit a ready ascension of the arms of the rods 0, (1', (t a, and o up the face of the keys to an engagement with the recess Ill, formed .in the upper face of the key to the rear, the outer wall. of which. recess is contiguous to the outer face of the base-bar of the frame, as illustrated in l ig. 7.

The lingers are retained in a horizontal position by a small spring 32, fastened to the base-bar of the frame and having a bearing uponv the under surface of the key at or near the center. The said springs 32 may be flat or coiled and one or more may be employed, or they may be dilfcrmltly located without departing from the spirit of the invention. If, therefore, the lower arms of the wire rods a, a, a a, and a are located in the recess 31 of their respective lingers, and. any one should press lightly on any of the lingers from the top, the said. linger will be depressed and the lower arm of one of the wires released, whereupon the wire will, through the medium of the spring 27, be quickly thrown over to its normal position at the left, applying the same movement to the corresponding upper arm.

It will be observed that the wires (1, a, 1/ a, and of are passed into and. through the tube ll in such manner that the lower arms will always be moved progressively, begin ning with the first upper or lower one-that is, from left to right if it is found necessary to beginwith the upper arm a, and. from right to left when beginning with. the lower arm (r and it will be also observed that the said rods may be all turned together, if desired, from either side.

Each arm of the wire rods passing out the upper end of the tube Ill carries at or near its end a clip for holding the pages to be turned. The clip usually consists, as illustrated in Fig. 8, of a straight base or lower jaw 34. and an angled upper jaw 35, pivoted. upon the lower jaw, the outer or gripping surfaces of'which jaws are held normally in contact through the medium of an essentially V- shaped spring so, bearing, respectively, against the opposing faces of the rear end or handle of the clip. I desire it, however, to be distinctly understood that I do not confine myself to this particular form of clip, as an y other approved construction may be substituted.

The clips 33 are preferably held upon the upper arms of the turning-rods that they may freely revolve. If desirerjl, however, the clips may be held stationary in a vertical position, their gripping ends extending downward.

The apparatus is ordinarily held. in. engagement with a piano, organ, or other musicsupport through themedium of essentially U- shaped springs 37, horizontally attached to the under edge of the base, and. to the rear side of the perpendicular guide-bar 13 a leg 88 is hinged, which may be placed, when thrown out from the frame to support the apparatus in a proper position, as in the manner of an easel, upon a table or other piece of furniture. IVhen, however, the apparatus is to be attached to an organ or piano, the leg 38 may be folded up against the rear side of the said perpendicular guide-bar 13.

In operation, let it be supposed that the arms a a a a 60 are all at rest to the left. I commence by placing a book or sheets of music upon the rest-bar l6, lowering and afterward raising the pivoted stops 18, thus engaging the pages which are to be played from. Suppose them to be five in number with the stops. That being accomplished, I pass the first of the upper armsthat is, the arm of the rod ato the right, the equivalent lower arm being brought in engagement with and held to the right by the upper finger 28, and fasten the clip attached to the upper arm of thisrod a to the last of the five pages. The same mode of procedure is adopted in connection with the remaining pages. This operation finished, upon touching the first or lower finger the first page will turn and then the second, the third, and so on as the several fingers are pressed. Before repeating a page I have simply to pass the respective arm back to the right, and, wishing to repeat all the piece, it simply becomes necessary to pass all of the arms back together.

If less than five pages are to be turned, I preferably use only the first lower arms, pres viously passing all the unused arms to the right. If the music is shorter than usual, the rest-bar 16 may be raised to a convenient height to properly support the same.

It will be seen that my apparatus is very simple in constructiomas well as easy to use, and its advantage over all other pagc-turners that hold the pages at the bottom is that it prevents the said pages from falling back by their superior weight and bending when turning, as almost invariably happens when the pages are detached from the others, as in sheet-music.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. In a music-leaf turner, the combination, with a frame, a tube supported centrally above the said frame extending above the same, a series of leaf turning rods of graduated lengths held to revolve in said tube, having the upper ends bent to form horizontal arms of essentially the same length and the lower ends bent to form equivalent arms of graded lengths, springs attached to the frame, and a connection between the lower arms of the leaf-turning rods and the springs, of a series of spring-actuated pivoted fingers having an inclined plane formed upon the upper surface, and a recess at the termination of the said inclined plane and rear portion of the said fingers, all combined to operate substantially as shown and described.

2. In a music-leaf turner, the combination, with a frame, of a rest-bar vertically adjust able upon the said frame, and a set-screw 

